Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth has refused to rule out intervening in a dispute at the highest levels of Australia’s Fair Work Commission. In an interview with Sky News on Sunday, the minister said she was seeking advice on the matter.
This week details of internal disputes at the commission burst into the public arena.
In 2021, Fair Work Commissioner Jennifer Hunt was counselled by then president Justice Ian Ross after using a homophobic slur to describe a male politician at a function, which led to staff complaints. Hunt has confirmed the incident did occur but told The Australian newspaper that she did not intend to cause offence when she used outdated and offensive terms to describe gay men and lesbians.
“I was happy to be schooled by the young people as to the correct terminology to use in the gay community,” she said.
Hunt told the newspaper she believes details of the incident, which occurred five years ago, were leaked due to an ongoing dispute she has had with Fair Work Commission vice-president Ingrid Ashbury.
Ashbury, who has been at the Commission for 26 years, reportedly took exception to Hunt’s behaviour at the retirement function for Ross in 2023. When everyone stood to toast Ross on this life’s work Hunt and two colleagues remained seated. The day after the disagreement Ashbury reportedly apologised to Ross and said it was her right to not stand if she wished.
A few months later Hunt filed a complaint against Ashbury detailing a long list of concerns going back several years. In a subsequent meeting over the complaints Hunt allegedly accused Ashbury of “mocking her values” and said she didn’t stand for a number of occurrences including Welcome to Country ceremonies, Acknowledgement of Country statements, foreign anthems or former High Court judge Michael Kirby – because she believed he was an activist judge.
Since then two investigations have been completed, but this week Hunt publicly declared that the Fair Work Commission was an unsafe workplace, and she intended to take legal action – possibly through the Queensland Fair Work Commission.
Additionally concern was raised over social media posts in which Commissioner Hunt criticised the government’s budget announcements and called for changes to the Sex Discrimination Act.
Hunt’s online comments included posts claiming women were being “gaslighted into being told men can transition into women”. She urged voters to support parties committed to changing the Sex Discrimination Act and praised the performance of Coalition MPs in parliament, while describing government members as “imbeciles”.
The commissioner told The Australian she would never hear a case in the tribunal involving a transgender person, arguing it would represent a conflict of interest given her publicly stated political views.
In a letter to the Minister from Ashbury’s lawyers Rishworth was asked to consider removing Hunt from her post for bringing the Commission into disrepute.
On Friday, the dispute appeared to have been settled, with the minister declaring the report into the matter would not be made public. Hunt agreed that she would abide by the Commssion’s guidelines for social media posts.
However, when Rishworth faced the media on Sunday, she refused to rule out further action. Minister Rishworth said the previous incident had already been investigated but noted there had since been additional allegations and complaints, and she required advice from the department on how to proceed.
